Side effects of rampant algae growth

[Slapp]

Hello!

What are the side effects of having lots of algae in the tank? Not saying whenever I have 30 ppm nitrate and they growing insane, but like it is in my tank.
There’s a thin layer of hair algae on most of the rock, but I let it grow. I have undetectable nitrate and phosphate because of it, and I have a supply of food for my lawnmower blenny, I just feed the corals.
What are the possible downsides to this “method”? I don’t have many corals at the moment but my monti caps seem to like it.

 

[Zach B]

Gha can eventually take over and become quite invasive to other corals. Another problem is the gha is taking the majority of your nutrients. Having a good cleanup crew & keeping feeding/nutrients in check will help a lot. Lighting may also be an issue

 

[Slapp]

I don’t think there’s really a desperate cause for the algae, I can scrape it off and it doesn’t come back for awhile. My blenny also pulls his part in preventing it from getting big, especially around the base of the corals where I can’t reach in.

If I keep it in check enough so it doesn’t smother corals, is there another negative that I don’t see?

It’s just awfully convenient, I do water changes based on Alk, and now sense I’m upgrading the tank from a 10 gallon to a 55 it would make a lot more sense to just dose 2 part and do water changes even more sparingly. In the upgrade I won’t be adding any more fish either, so export demand would be even lower.

If it was byropsis or one of the other more structured algae I wouldn’t keep it. Same with Cyano because I hate the bubbles lol. But film and hair are fine.

 

[Lavey29]

I've always thought tanks should have a small amount of green slime algae as a sign of good balance. Whether in the DT or perhaps the fuge. Coraline will typically out compete at some point if your tank is stabil.

 

[Zach B]

I mean the ocean has algae so if you don't have a problem with it in the tank and it's not hurting anything then it's entirely up to you

 

[Lavey29]

I mean the ocean has algae so if you don't have a problem with it in the tank and it's not hurting anything then it's entirely up to you

I have a moderate amount of GHA but I'm not really doing anything about it. I pull some out during water change and let the cleaning crew work on it but no chemicals. I just want the tank to manage it naturally.

 

[Slapp]

Oh yeah, the back and sides of the tank are almost completely covered in a nice green/blue coralline.

I've always thought tanks should have a small amount of green slime algae as a sign of good balance. Whether in the DT or perhaps the fuge. Coraline will typically out compete at some point if your tank is stabile.

 

[Lavey29]

Oh yeah, the back and sides of the tank are almost completely covered in a nice green/blue coralline.

That will eventually out compete the nuisance algae just watch your alk and cal consumption if you are getting a lot of coraline

 

[damsels are not mean]

If it doesn't grow back super fast then the solution is to get more corals growing. As the tank matures other things will compete for that space including calcareous algaes that are pretty and won't block coral growth.